A coalition of gender equality advocates, the Nigeria Women in Leadership (WIL) Cohort, has called on Nigeria’s private sector and labour policymakers to take urgent, measurable action to end the systemic exclusion of women from formal employment and career progress.
The civil society advocates also urged Nigerian companies to take bold, measurable steps toward workplace gender equity, beginning with gender-balanced entry-level hiring targets and transparent public reporting on the progress.
They also called on the government and regulatory agencies to implement stronger policies that promote women’s career advancement and ensure greater corporate compliance.
The demands of the Women In Management and Public Service (WIMBIZ) and the Women in Leadership Advancement Network (WILAN) followed the new data from the Women in the Workplace 2024 report published by McKinsey & Company, showing that women hold just 1 in 3 entry-level roles in Nigeria’s private sector.
According to the analyzed gender representation data from 65 companies in Nigeria, Kenya, and India, the Coalition stated that McKinsey found that in Nigeria, women hold only 33% of entry-level private sector jobs, despite being nearly half the workforce.
The data paints a sober picture of the challenges facing Nigerian women in formal employment, the advocates noted, adding that in the finance sector, women’s representation drops by 19 percentage points between entry-level and executive roles, the coalition noted.
While women make up nearly half of the country’s labour force, the Coalition lamented that their representation in private sector jobs remains alarmingly low, dropping even further as they move up the ladder.
Omowunmi Akingbohungbe, Executive Director of WIMBIZ, who noted that the report speaks to what many Nigerian women already know, said, “The real problem starts from the entry-level hiring process
“If we are serious about growth, we need to build systems that ensure women get equal opportunity from the start and the relevant support to help them rise. Companies that fail to harness the full talent pool are holding themselves back.”
Abosede George-Ogan, founder of Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), stressed the urgent need to review and strengthen Nigeria’s labour policies to protect women from discrimination.
Emphasising that the review would ensure equal pay for equal work and enforce maternity protections and safe, inclusive work environments, she said, “Existing laws must be updated to reflect the realities faced by women in today’s workforce.”
On her part, Shirley Ewang, the Advocacy Lead at Gatefield, pointed out that the data indicating that 29% of C-suite roles in Nigeria’s formal private sector are held by women was a figure that compares favourably with global averages.
Ewang, however, argued that the figure masks a deeper crisis, saying, “Too few women are being hired into formal roles in the first place, and even fewer are supported to advance”.
